There are a million exciting opportunities that come with the end of University. The liberating feeling of doing whatever the hell you want with your life; the fact that you’ll never have to write another essay again if you so wish. The promise of the big wide world can often make you forget that leaving Uni will properly suck. Here’s a few reasons why.

1)Having to move back home.

For some, going back home after a term of writing essays and paying your own bills might be a godsend. The home cooked meals, not having to worry about what food is going off in your fridge; the constant and homely warmth, both physically and emotionally, that only going back to your parents can bring.

For others, going home signals a loss of independence. Going back after a term is lovely, don’t get me wrong. Going back for good indicates that three years of coming in when you want and choosing every single thing about your own life is over. Look at it whatever way you want, you’re back under your parent’s roof now.

2)No student discount

The majority of extra-curricular activities you partake in as a student, are discounted just because you attend a few measly contact hours at your University. Be that bowling, the cinema, discounted student nights at bars and clubs and the beloved takeaway. Now you’re not in full time education, no company wants to know. They assume you’re now magically rich and capable of paying extortionate prices for a pint and a game of pool with your mates.

Ok, so pretend you’re ok with that. You’re now in the big wide world and are potentially able to take on a fulltime job, with actual pay! Well done. But remember that sweet sweet free money you used to get, known as the student loan? Yeah, you won’t get that anymore. Nothing in the real world is free, so you better hope you didn’t spend three years getting pissed and not doing any work. You’re CV is your new best friend.

3)The routine

Let’s face it, most students don’t have an extensive amount of contact hours. At best, you’re looking at around 15 hours a week of compulsory, timetabled education. The rest of the time you spend as a student might comprise of lying in bed and choosing to start your essay reading at 6pm after a strenuous day of doing absolutely shit all. The point is, no longer are you allowed to run by your own routine. Post-Uni you’ll be roped into the dreaded ‘9-5’, where your boss tells you when to come in, when to leave and essentially, when to eat sleep and do anything else. Going to work will probably be a liberating experience. You’ll earn your own money and really feel like you’re making your own way in life. However, that freedom you’ve become so accustomed to is no longer a reality.

4)The fear of the unknown

Seventeen years the Uni student has dedicated to full time education. Seventeen years of structure, of knowing what comes next, of letting other people decide when you have to go to school or when your deadlines are. Now you’re out, you have to decide what comes next. It’s an exciting prospect, the world is your oyster. But for those who have gone step by step into the next chapter of their academic lives, the next step can be a huge one.

Are you going to get a job? Are you going to go onto further education? Are you going to go travelling? How are you going to support yourself? What are you going to do with the rest of your life? These are all questions your parents will start badgering you with – that is, if they haven’t started already.

5)The obvious one. Not being able to see your Uni family every day.

Everyone has one. That group of friends, usually housemates, that they have seen during their time at University every single day. The friends that have driven them crazy, and who have completely changed their lives forever at the same time; who made exam period bearable, who got them home after a crazy night out, who they stayed up all night talking to putting the world to rights.

There’s the loud one, the kooky uncle, the innocent childlike one you all look after. There’s the mum who tucks everyone in when they’re drunk, the quiet one who’s come out of their shell over the years.

This makeshift family you’ve come home to every night after Uni, all go home to their real families. Which is nice, but also really bloody sad.

To conclude, being a student is great. And I say that not it all in a mopey, nostalgic kind of way, of course.

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If you have graduated or are in third year now you may know of the feeling of the third year lull, the initial excitement of starting back at University, or Christmas have faded into the all too distant past, leaving us instead to live in a reality of declined job applications, a never ending dissertation to slog away at and not forgetting the rapidly decreasing amount of nights out. But instead of sitting on the sofa sulking, emerging yourself in the ultimate lows of television viewing to avoid your own depressing reality, why not give some of these excellent free indoor activities ago to awaken your inner fresher that is dying to come and introduce themselves once again.